Help the Gates Foundation decide how to spend money on libraries: Time to free ‘The Great Gatsby’ and other classics and support national digital library systems?

In an even more wired future, what will be the needs of public libraries in the U.S. and elsewhere? Just what’s the role of libraries if “a person can access much of the information in the world from a device”? How to bring about the right kind of “lasting changes”?

A big conundrum for present and future libraries is, how to pay for content? The Net teems with free facts, raw information, as well as public domain and Creative Commons-licensed books and ad-supported content. But all too often, without our public libraries truly going online, readers will still suffer the torturesome and tortuous constraints of copyright law in the States and other countries.

Here’s an example of the good that the Gates Foundation and other philanthropies could do for libraries online and the rest of us while respecting copyright and still supporting physical libraries.

In June 1997 I suggested that Bill Gates turn The Great Gatsby and other masterpieces loose on the Net by paying their owners fair compensation. It made sense. Gatsby was his favorite book—it remains mine and perhaps Gates still feels the same—and he even owned several rare editions. But how to share his enthusiasm in countries where the book is still under copyright? Published in 1925, Gatsby will be locked up until January 1, 2021. The magic date is less than a decade away, meaning that Gates would enjoy extra bargaining power with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s descendants and anyone else involved; but with so many dollars from media and entertainment companies flowing toward Capitol Hill, we just might see copyright terms extended in the future. Buying up Gatsby and other greats would be one way of coping with the realities of the here and now, in legal ways, whether not billionaires like Bill Gates can afford to subsidize everything (no, even they can’t). And don’t let anyone argue: “Next thing you know, they’ll use Gatsby and other classics to sell shaving cream.” Gatsby-level literature will thrive with the extra exposure.

Time, then, for the Gates Foundation to think about all the potential here? For that matter, I’d love to see the foundation aggressively encourage others to do the same. Gluejar/Unglue.it, run by accomplished technical people and content experts with whom Foundation Co-chairs Bill and Melinda Gates might well click, now exists to buy up rights with the needs of both libraries and book-lovers in mind. While Gluejar appeals primarily to the masses for donations, I hardly doubt that it or another content-oriented nonprofit would reject money from the Gates Foundation.

This and related issues should transcend ideology. In an “On the Right” column in 1993, my political opposite William F. Buckley Jr. even urged Gates to buy my TeleRead national digital library plan for $1 and “make a gift of it to the American people” (a more recent version of the plan is online via the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the LibraryCity site includes other updates of the much-evolved original). Like others, WFB recommended Andrew Carnegie as a role model for Gates. Actually he wrote two columns on behalf of my proposal; and the DPLA, originated at Harvard and supported by a number of important policymakers in government and the library world, is a way for his hopes to become a reality. Instead of competing with the DPLA, Gates should combine forces. Not that the TeleRead vision ever was for sale for the DPLA’s use or others’, but I’ll cut the price to a penny. Fair enough?

In an era when “digital library system” can mean a lot more than books alone, however, let’s not allow Gatsby and other important works to be lost in the shuffle. This is no small detail. Over the years the Gates Foundation has been far more interested in helping to wire up schools and libraries and in developing library leaders than in helping to arrange for sizable and sustainable financing of library e-books and other content. We should be grateful to Bill and Melinda Gates for the many millions spent in the former two ways, as well as for the billions for fighting AIDS and other scourges—a far, far cry from the time when just a minuscule speck of the Gates’ wealth was going for charity. But, Bill, I’m not going to forget the content-related suggestions I made for you in the 1990s, including the Gatsby one. In fact, the need for e-content for libraries is a zillion times greater, now that e-books are for Kindles and Nooks and cellphones, not just fuzzy-screened PCs and PDAs. Just look at this Kansas newspaper clip and a Washington Post article, as well as Pew research showing that more than a fifth of U.S. adults read an e-book in the past year, but that three-fifths of library cardholders don’t know that libraries can loan out E. What happens when still more people learn of the possibilities here, especially with e-books taking over so much of the publishing industry? Will Bill and Melinda Gates care enough to do more than the foundation is now (ideally by way of serious financing of both an academic digital library system and a public one, with sizable endowments and grants for procurement, creation and curation of content, as well as related access issues)? I’d hope so. Significantly, traditional literacy boosts health literacy, and vice versa, so, in helping the world’s libraries more than he is doing now, Gates would also aid his health efforts.

Granted, Bill Gates very possibly thinks of Microsoft as partly a content provider, and maybe he wonders how appropriate it would have been for Andrew Carnegie to give away steel. But he is 57 years old now; so, beyond citing the demand that better-stocked digital libraries would help create for Microsoft tablets among others, I’ll remind him of his legacy. Isn’t Carnegie’s library-related charity one of the main reasons we remember him but not the typical mogul of his era? And while the Gates family’s other donations are laudable, wouldn’t his imprint on American life and the national memory be greater if he generously funded the DPLA and related efforts and finally gave us the full digital library capabilities we were expecting when the press hailed him as a new Carnegie? The old issues from the ‘90s more than simply abide; and, if nothing else, let’s not forget how Gatsby ends.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Update, 1:33 a.m., December 4: I added mention of the connection between traditional literacy and the health-related kind. The more easily the world’s people can understand health information, the more likely they are to follow the advice of health workers. What’s more, greater mass-literacy means more prosperity, which in turn means more resources for health. In the other direction, of course, healthier people end up as better learners.

For those unfamiliar with unglue.it, It’s a crowdfunding website partly inspired by the original TeleRead proposal, and developed by Gluejar, mentioned in this article. If you would contribute towards the vison of making The Great Gatsby or any other book free to the world, go ahead, sign up, and wish for it. We have 5 book funding campaigns going which need support; we’re slowly working ourselves up to the classics.

The Great Gatsby is in the public domain in countries such as Australia. Project Gutenberg Australia is a great source. It’s not the easiest thing to explain to people!

I’d second everything Eric wrote–and encourage everyone to support his efforts. Think of this as the rough equivalent of contributing money to buy private land for recreational parks or preservation or both. In some ways the Nature Conservancy comes to mind. I believe others have made this comparison before, and it’s very applicable.

Addendum, 2 p.m.: Yes, to extrapolate a little, maybe one approach would be for Bill Gates to pay for most of Gatsby, no small outlay, but require some matching donations from libraries and/or other individuals to demonstrate interest. I’d welcome people’s thoughts on this. It would be wonderful if we simply could rely on tax money for the purchase, but I’m very much in favor of experimentation with and combinations of different business models. Different books may lend themselves to different financing strategies. Of course, if Bill Gates wants to donate Gatsby solo, I haven’t the slightest objection! It’s already among the most-wished-for books at Gluejar/Unglue.it.

There is an underlying assumption both in this article and in the questions as framed by the Gates Foundation which is patently missing a problem.

The digital divide has not gone away. If anything it is worse now than it ever has been. The inference I make from the questions which the survey asks (and, yes, I did fill it out) is that there is an assumption about what is needed while ignoring that there is a growing part of the population which cannot access basic services.

On a daily basis I am helping people who struggle with literacy, never mind using a computer, to apply for jobs like cook, janitor, deck hand. When to apply for a job flipping burgers at a fast food chain requires that you fill out a web form, complete with the “captcha” spam shield, I know there is a problem. You need to have an email address. Daily, I still have to help people to set one up, and trust me, Google’s new requirements for setting one up are further disenfranchising people. (Not to mention that you get an error message from Google if you are using XP and IE8 — “antiquated operating system” my foot.)

Many people still have basic cell phones, and there are folks who are fairly well educated and positioned (I am thinking of one of my brothers who has a Master’s degree and owns a business) who do not text, never mind have or use a smartphone.

Yes, libraries need to be leaders. Yes, we need visibility in our communities. BUT we do not have the ability (nor the role, by the way) to fix many of the issues related to the widening digital divide. State agencies are closing offices (in my state, anyway) and saying “Just do it on the web.” At the same time the legislature eliminated all state-wide funding for public library service. We have been asked to do more with less, and have done so. Now they are giving us even less, asking us to do more, and not letting us drop any programs. Something has to give, and it has to give soon!

Gates should be part of the solution, not exacerbating the problem, and they don’t seem to even acknowledge that there is a problem.

Thanks, Front Line. I’ve replied here, and I hope my comments are helpful. Ideally you’ll join me in my efforts to convince the DPLA to go the dual system route so digital divide issues don’t get lost in the shuffle. And, yes, Bill Gates needs to do his part, too, especially given his digitally oriented vision for future libraries. My concern isn’t over the survey itself, but rather over what follows—or doesn’t. DR

David Rothman { Thanks, Todd. A few points: 1. Portals rich in metadata---not just full-fledged archives---can be useful. Of course, I wish the DPLA interface were better so... } – May 06, 1:04 PM

Todd { I'm confused by your call to support the DPLA with an endowment. If the DPLA is to become a real public library it needs to... } – May 06, 12:33 PM

David Rothman { Thanks for caring about this important issue, Robert. iBooks' TTS isn't as slick as it could be, nor is the TTS as used on the... } – Jan 03, 9:20 PM

Robert Nagle { The fact that the low powered earlier Kindle 3 model could implement a reasonably functional version of text-to-speech suggests that the technological challenges of doing... } – Jan 03, 9:09 PM

David Rothman { Hi, Troy--I very much appreciated your note. No, not much is available in Alexandria in terms of general bookstores, perhaps partly because rents around here... } – Oct 21, 2:15 PM

Troy Johnson { I wish I read this aticle before compiling my list of best cities for readers of African American literature. Part of my motivation for publishing... } – Oct 21, 1:21 PM

David Rothman { Thanks for your comments, Jen. Actually we agree in many if not most ways. I certainly want librarians to be able to go outside to... } – Oct 15, 12:39 PM

Jen { Sadly, I don't share your optimism about the ability of libraries to manage the security of their own applications. Libraries have good intentions when it... } – Oct 15, 12:12 PM

Diane Romm { We did that once before. It was called a subscription library, and it's what existed before the rise of free public libraries. What did it... } – Jul 22, 9:51 AM

David Rothman { Thanks for your opinions, L.O. A lot of sensible people share our feelings about the greater value that a different approach could add. Here are a... } – Jul 05, 12:25 PM

Library Observer { I admittedly have no knowledge of the internal dollars and cents workings of Overdrive -- but it does touch on topics that I have always... } – Jul 05, 11:45 AM

David Rothman { Hi, Mike. I really appreciate your suggestions, but Testbag, almost surely one of the offenders, is not even on the app menu within Settings. And... } – May 16, 8:14 PM

Mike { Just go in settings, application and disable (if you cannot uninstall) the apps (like ubiinfo) that bugs you with ads. Avast antivirus for Android will tell you... } – May 16, 1:54 PM